My #GivingTuesday Recommendations

It’s the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and the hashtag of the day is #GivingTuesday. This is the day to raise awareness for charitable causes that could use your dollars just as much (or more!) as retail stores. I am intimately involved with many charitable causes that I think deserve your donations. Some are 501(c)3 orgs, so you get a tax deduction, some are not. All of them come with my highest endorsement and recommendation. On to the list!

I’m on the steering committee for this organization. CBS has a few different programs, but the main one is the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship for writers of color attending the Clarion and Clarion West writing workshops. Every year we aim to pay the full tuition, room, and board for two writer of color to attend one or the other workshop as a way to honor Butler’s legacy. Thus far, we’ve funded 25 scholarships. We want to do more going forward, including relaunching our literary awards, administering more scholarships, and connecting writers and fans of color at conventions via POC dinners and parties. We can make that happen with your help.

The Writing Excuses Cruise Alumni Scholarship

I’ve been a staff member on the WX cruise the past three years and this year I also taught. It’s a writing conference, a writing retreat, and an inspiration-generating adventure all in one, making it a valuable experience for writers just getting a career started. It’s also a hefty chunk of change, so the cruise alumni started raising money to help writers who could not afford the cost to come. The money raised supports both the general scholarships and the ones for writers of color. This past year they raised enough that we had five scholarships overall (some money is raised by contributions to the WX Patreon). This year I’d like to help them raise enough for six or more.

They’re collecting donations via PayPal through December 15 at the address wxralumscholar@gmail.com. Please include your name so they’ll know who it’s from. If you donate via credit card as a gift (as in, not for a good or service), there shouldn’t be a fee. If PayPal does not work for you for some reason, please email them at that address and they’ll work something out.

I teach these classes online with Nisi Shawl and other amazing instructors. We try to make our classes as accessible as possible on multiple fronts, including offering spots to writers who cannot afford them. Our goal is to set aside 25% or more of each class for scholarship applicants. We also use the funds to cover those who register on a sliding scale.

I am not affiliated with this organization, I have been the recipient of funds in the past. Con or Bust helps people of color attend SFF conventions in order to help ensure we have a presence at in-person genre events as well as access to community or networking or other opportunities. They do wonderful work and the entire community benefits from having more people from various backgrounds and cultures in con space.

This org is headed by gamer and tireless force for good Tanya DePass. I Need Diverse Games seeks to bring projects, works and research by marginalized folks to light. We also seek to discuss, analyze and critique identity and culture in video games through a multi-faceted lens rooted in intersectionality. In addition to raising awareness of issues via social media, they also have a podcast and Tanya speaks at gaming conferences and other events.

The SLF offers several grants for a range of different groups from older writers to marginalized writers to low-income writers, plus a travel grant to assist writers who wish to travel for research. What’s even better is that their grant applications are very simple, which is a huge help for people who don’t have much experience with this kind of thing.